Rippers
by Nestrik
Summary: Nineteen years after the fall of the Empire, supporters come back to wreak havoc on a lonely planet called Baroonda...
1. Disclaimer

RIPPER  
  
Disclaimer  
  
  
  
  
  
Obviously, I don't own Luke Skywalker, the Rebels, or the Empire, the planets or pod racers/ tracks. Everything belongs to George Lucas that is familiar.  
  
Benji, Lee, Jimena, Tangalese, Queen Obidan. everyone unfamiliar belongs to me. I did borrow some names from other people, though. "Benji" is the lead guitarist in the band Good Charlotte, and "Jimena" is a character in Lynne Ewing's "Daughters of the Moon" series.  
  
The idea for the murders itself, the shallow wounds and all, belong to David Lynch and everyone else who worked on the TV show "Twin Peaks." 


	2. Chapter One

RIPPER  
  
Chapter One  
  
  
  
"I want them here," Benji shouted into the communication device. "Now!" Benji slammed the device back into its charger on her belt and buried her face in her hands. Long ropes of bright red snaked around her fingers and tickled her elbows. Her tanned skin was pockmarked and scarred with her work.  
  
The office was small, but there were two more people and a desk in it. The desk held a nameplate that read, BENJI MAWHONIK, CHIEF OF POLICE PALACE PRECINCT. The two people were clearly not humanoid. They were both Mik Awla warriors.  
  
"Desert Precinct is coming to help us out at the scene," Benji sighed. "Tangalese, I need you to secure the area around the Palace. Why did Queen Obidan have to pick THIS week to go to Malastare? Jimena, I need you to watch out for the Desert Precinct. And both of you, whatever you do, keep the Jedi the hell out of here!"  
  
"Pride of local law enforcement," Tangalese whispered to Jimena as Benji slammed her way out of the office and down the corridor.  
  
*** The bodies were draped against the marble steps of the Palace of Baroonda, in the Jungle City of Helri. Blood still seeped from their wounds. Living, crawling life. Pulsating with cells still alive enough to turn red when it hit the air. It seeped down the steps, pooling on them where there wasn't enough force left to guide it on down.  
  
There were two women this time. They had been slaughtered the same way as the first two. Small, shallow cuts all over their body. None large enough to be fatal, but all together there was massive blood loss. The first two victims had been men.  
  
Jimena stood watch at the end of the street, watching for the Desert Precinct. Benji knelt beside the bodies, looking them over. "Jimena!" she called. Jimena pivoted on one foot and ran towards Benji. "I need you to take a scan on these blood cells, find out who our victims are," Benji informed her. Jimena pulled the DNA identification device out of her belt pouch and tested the blood of the two women.  
  
"Ada Beno, twenty-one, married. Citizen of Tatooine."  
  
"We're gonna have to get Tangalese to deal with them," Benji sighed. Dealing with the Hutts was not the number one thing on her favorites list. "And, we've got her sister. Jada Navor, nineteen. Citizen of Malastare. Gonna get Tangalese to do that one to?"  
  
Benji grinned, though it looked forced. "Yeah."  
  
In the distance, she could hear muffled commands being shouted at a large group of officers in the desert tunnels leading into the city. "Looks like the Desert Precinct is here," Benji said, rising from her kneeling position. "I'm going to go look around the streets for. anything."  
  
Jimena nodded and also rose. She casually leaned against a pillar, though her sharp eyes roamed the area for clues, even though the best crime investigators in the two Precincts would do that later.  
  
Benji strode off to the right of the palace. She closed her eyes and exhaled.  
  
It was in a small alleyway that she found what she was looking for. It was a small communication device, not unlike her own. The difference was that this was one of the first such devices ever made. The mesh screening for the voice to travel through was tattered, and there was no video screen.  
  
Benji turned it over and the three marks on the device's back jumped up at her like sparks from a fire. She recognized them. the ancient Baroondian marks, for death, pain, and fire.  
  
The thing was that even though she was not a Jedi Knight, even Benji could feel the Force surrounding these marks. The Dark Force hadn't been felt in nineteen years, ever since Skywalker and his Rebel Army drove the Empire to its death.  
  
Death and pain, Benji mused. Don't see where fire fits in, though.  
  
Rising, she contacted Aniron. He would know what to do about this second device.  
  
*** Aniron, Chief of All Precincts, picked up. Benji's crisp voice sounded in his ear.  
  
"We've got another communication device, same three marks, same feeling of the Dark Force."  
  
Aniron sighed. His old, wrinkled hands tapped on his desk.  
  
"Thank you, Benji. Has the Desert Precinct arrived yet?"  
  
"Yes, sir. I believe that they have entered the city."  
  
"Alright then." Aniron blanched at his next sentence. "Benji. the IPRC is coming today to inspect the courses."  
  
The International Pod Racing Committee came three days before the races were held to inspect the tracks for safety and fairness reasons. Baroonda held semi-professional and professional races, as well as an Invitational. It was a full time job for the Palace, Desert, Beach and Jungle Precincts.  
  
"The IPRC?" Benji said weakly. "But, we won't have it cleaned up by then! When are they coming?"  
  
"In an hour," Aniron said tentatively.  
  
"An hour?!" Benji exploded. "We don't have time! We won't be able to inspect the area by then! And what about the assassin? The IPRC won't be happy about that little problem."  
  
"That's what I need to tell you," said Aniron cautiously. Even though Benji was only eighteen, she was smart. And she had a temper the size of both of Tatooine's moons combined.  
  
"No." Benji stated the one word firmly. "No. No. No. The Jedi are not coming here! We're doing fine for ourselves! We can do it alone, Aniron!"  
  
"The Jedi want to help us," Aniron informed her.  
  
"The Jedi want to take over to show the world, once again, how smart and brave they are!" Benji thundered.  
  
"Benji," Aniron said, his voice now commanding. "They have already been sent for. You cannot do anything about it."  
  
"Alright," Benji said bitterly and disconnected. She headed towards the Palace. The bodies had, to her surprise, been cleaned, as well as the murder area. Investigators were searching the place, but if they hadn't found anything by now, they wouldn't find anything.  
  
Inside the Palace, she headed to the washroom. If she was going to have to face the Jedi, she was going to face them as a true Baroondan Warrior. She drew the ancient Warrior symbol on her forehead and brushed her hair out of her eyes to inspect her clothes. Soft, brown sleeveless leather vests and shorts were worn with pride by the Warriors. Her belt with all its storage pouches hung around her waist tightly. Soft cloth leggings and long sleeves protruded under the leather. It was a soft/sharp look, proclaiming the attitude of the Warriors and the look of Baroonda.  
  
Benji could now hear voices outside in the marble anteroom. She stepped silently outside. Her gun and emergency dagger were heavy on her belt.  
  
Benji could see that the Jedi had arrived. What surprised her was that there were only two of them. A master, and an apprentice. The master wore the long sweeping brown robe and tunic of those already accepted into Knighthood. His lightsaber gleamed, cold and metallic, on his own belt. The apprentice was about her own age, Benji guessed. He wore the black robe of an apprentice and his braid trailed along his back. Both the Jedi were blonde and arguing with one of the Queen's advisors.  
  
"I don't know where she is," the advisor said.  
  
"We need to speak to her," the master said, while the apprentice said, "Can't you just find the chief by her communication device?"  
  
Benji stepped up behind the advisor.  
  
The apprentice dismissed her quickly. "Would you know where to find a. Benji? Yes, Benji Mawhonik. Where is she, Princess?"  
  
Princess.  
  
That's it, thought Benji, infuriated. I can take being called a peasant. But a PRINCESS?  
  
"I am Benji Mawhonik," she said with a dangerously controlled edge in her voice.  
  
"Where are the bodies?" the elder Jedi asked, as the younger Jedi looked disbelievingly at her. "We really should search them."  
  
"What, our reports aren't good enough for you? Its one thing to come in here and take over. Its another to insult our work," Benji said, still angry at the Princess comment.  
  
"That's not what I meant," the elder Jedi said calmly. The apprentice still looked at her suspiciously. Benji cast a gaze over him. "I'm sorry, does something trouble you?" she asked sweetly.  
  
"No." The one word sentence was spoken too quickly.  
  
The master turned to his apprentice. "Come now, Lee. Look at who your mother is."  
  
"I'm sorry," said Benji, stepping forwards. "We haven't formally introduced ourselves, and I must know your name if you," she annunciated the 'you,' "are going to be working with me."  
  
"I'm sorry. Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight."  
  
"Skywalker?" Benji asked, her turn to look disbelieving. The man smiled, as if he got that look all the time. "Yes, I am Luke Skywalker. This is my son, Lee."  
  
"Pleasure," said Lee, though he was still a little wary of the chief of police who was his own age.  
  
"Come, now," Luke said. "We have much to discuss."  
  
Not minding his commandeering attitude as much any longer, Benji followed Luke who followed the advisor into a small conference room off the main hall. The majestic gardens of the Jungle City glowed green in the fading gold rays. The Jedi made no move to remove their robes, however, even in the midsummer heat.  
  
"Welcome to Baroonda, and Helri," Benji said, gesturing towards the open doors that led to the balcony. "Please come, its more comfortable out here."  
  
The sooner I get these Jedi out of here, the better, she was thinking.  
  
Once standing on the balcony looking over the small white marble buildings with the golden trim, Benji relaxed. This was her territory, after all. The Jedi could never fully be in charge.  
  
"We believe that this is the work of a small group that holds some knowledge of the Force," Benji elaborated. She explained how the victims were murdered, and then added, "I don't like this. I don't like any murder case, but I don't think this is a copycat or a random crime."  
  
Luke and Lee exchanged glances that made Benji want to draw her emergency dagger and stab them both. Luke decided that Benji could and should know the information that the newly reformed Jedi Council on Coruscant possessed.  
  
"We at the Council believe that this is the work of the Old Empire's supporters. They've waited until everything settled down, and they chose to strike here. But why?" Luke questioned.  
  
"Baroonda was barely involved in the war," Benji cut in. "Our people aren't accustomed to fighting. We were neutral in the war, and took whatever came our way. However, we did discover that life was better once the Empire was destroyed, so I'm pretty sure that if something like that ever again was to happen the Baroondan army would fight for the Rebels." A sly grin crept across her face, and then disappeared. "Or are you the empire now, and they the rebels?"  
  
Lee gave her a soft smile. Benji glared at him. Just because she was the only Baroondan female he had met so far didn't mean he was licensed to flirt with her.  
  
After Benji informed the Jedi about the three ancient symbols on the old communication device, Luke walked off with the advisor to meet with the IPRC. Benji began to follow them.  
  
"Benji! Wait!"  
  
Here comes the puppy dog, Benji thought. Lucky that daddy isn't around anymore.  
  
But then a voice of reason cut through her sarcastic demeanor. Give him a chance, it urged.  
  
Benji gave in to temptation and slowed her steps to wait for the apprentice.  
  
*** Oovoo IV was cold. Very cold.  
  
The cloaked figure shivered and waited. Dark buildings loomed against the star splashed sky. It was like Coruscant, but foreigner. More beautiful.  
  
He had no instructions. He was the master, and he was the apprentice. Waiting for himself proved a hard task, but he would wait until he got an idea. After all, he reminded himself, the sweet, bitter taste of revenge would keep his bones warm. 


	3. Chapter Two

RIPPERS  
  
Chapter Two  
  
  
  
"So." Lee said. "How long have you been in the police force?"  
  
"Three years, since I was fifteen. Yeah, I know I'm young. But I 'showed so much promise as a child," Benji said, mimicking her old teachers at the Academy, "that they just promoted me. And now I'm head of the Palace Precinct."  
  
"That's great, really it is."  
  
"Yeah, its ok. How long have you been an apprentice?"  
  
"I got accepted into the Temple at six. being who my dad was, it was Knighthood or a lifetime of washing laundry," Lee said, shoving his hands into his robe.  
  
"Do you mind that?" Benji asked. He wasn't that bad after all.  
  
Lee shrugged. "Not really. Sometimes I want to be a racer."  
  
"Pod?"  
  
Lee nodded. "Like my grandfather. My dad doesn't talk about him much, though. I went to the library a couple of times, but, predictably, all the files were about Darth Vader, not Anakin Skywalker."  
  
"Is it hard. being who you are, who your father is, and who your grandfather was?" Benji asked, tilting her head. The concern in her eyes was genuine, a rare occurrence for her. It was just mostly ordering people around, not caring, only thinking on a one-way track, the case ahead of her that she would conquer time and time again. Benji shook her head slightly and made herself hear the words coming out of Lee's mouth.  
  
"Sometimes. Everyone expects. you know what? I don't know what they expect." Lee's face hardened and his eyes grew cold. "Some people avoid me though. Say I look like Anakin."  
  
Benji's eyes narrowed, trying to recall the old pictures she had seen of the young Darth Vader while trying to see some sort of resemblance.  
  
It was a moment before she sensed it rather than saw it. The resemblance. their eyes had the same warm/cold feeling that Benji had felt seeping out of the old photographs.  
  
It was at that pivotal moment that the communication device on her belt buzzed. Shaken out of her sensitive moment, Benji's eyes also lost their blue shine and became more like ice chips. "Benji here," she barked into the mesh. "The IRPC is here," Jimena said. "Say they wanna see you and talk about the 'recent tragedies.'"  
  
"Ok, I'll be right there." Benji turned the device off and shoved it back into its pouch as her strides unconsciously became determinedly longer. Lee jogged a few steps to catch up to her. "What's the IPRC?"  
  
"International Pod Racing Committee," Benji snapped. Lee stared at her back, trying to figure out how to respond to her comment and her sudden mood swing. He came up empty, so he just walked behind her in silence.  
  
The last shafts of golden light drifted through the pillars, tainting the marble blood red. It was a typical Baroondan sunset, filled with color, drifting in over the western edge of the city over the desert. The great sandy cliffs were colored purple in the magnificent shadows.  
  
Benji's sharp eyes picked out faces in the small crowd of about twenty beings in the cluster at the end of the steps leading up to the Palace. It was now the sunset that colored the steps red, not the blood of innocent humans. Benji could see several faces, usually only seen in a blur, in the group. 'Bullseye' Navoir, the best pod racer in the galaxy in the year after Anakin Skywalker debuted at the Boonta Classic, stood at the head, his brown head with its hair-like diamonds in a waving line on top nodding and shaking as he talked with Aniron. Behind him was Ody Mandrell, looking over the streets and remembering his own glory days speeding down the streets of Helri. Dud Bolt and Ebe Endecott argued over some happening on Malastare while Neva Kee stood patient and silent just in front of them. Benji remembered all of these racers from the Grapevine Gateway race when she was ten. She remembered the black blood of Sebulba staining the desert cliffs, Gasgano's green pod flying over his mangled body, the champion from Tatooine finally defeated.  
  
Benji strode up to Aniron and let her right hand drift to the gun holster on her hip. All chatter stopped abruptly. Benji wanted to grin. She had learned with these people who were known throughout the galaxy that it was best that they knew that she, and the rest of the police, meant business. The presence of Lee behind her helped somewhat also, even though he was only an apprentice. The lightsaber hung heavy on his own belt.  
  
"I am Benji Mawhonik, Chief of Police in the Palace Precinct." She gave a curt nod before she continued. "If you have a problem with anything in the city, contact me." She glared at them before stepping back to her original position behind Aniron.  
  
"I am Hemin Holdfar, Chief of Police in the Jungle Precinct." In addition to his normal uniform, Hemin had a long machete attached to his belt. He used it for cutting down wayward branches in the Jungle, but he also enjoyed the rather shocked look he got from foreigners when their eyes fell upon it. "If there is a distraction. perhaps a tree grown too large for your likes. tell me and I will take care of it," Hemin finished in his soft voice. He fingered his machete for effect.  
  
The last person standing behind Aniron stepped forwards. "I am Boles Sandaghe. I am in charge of the Desert Precinct." Boles' voice thundered easily over the crowd. "I have already walked through my precinct and doubt that you will find anything wrong with it. But if something is too troublesome for your particular taste." he glared at the crowd also, but his was more pointed and sharp than Benji's, "contact me or give a message to my faithful servant, Guo." A large black Wookie standing behind Boles gave a punctuated grunt. Dud Bolt gave a squeak and backed up until he bumped into Fud Sang, who also grunted at him.  
  
Tangalese emerged from around a corner, leading Luke Skywalker through the city. They strode up to Aniron, Benji, Boles and Hemin to stand behind them. Aniron gestured towards Tangalese. "This is Tangalese, who helps in the Jungle Precinct." Ebe Endecott snorted at the fact that a male had to help Benji. Benji fingered her gun and Ebe went silent once more.  
  
"I will take questions now before we walk the Invitational course." Aniron waited. Finally 'Bullseye' spoke. "How do we know that your rippers are taken care of?" he asked in his Oovoo II accent.  
  
"Our what?" Aniron asked.  
  
"Your rippers. The ones that rip up their victims."  
  
"Oh, you mean the murderers." Aniron gave a forced laugh. "We have to Jedi here to protect you and ourselves while on our fair planet. Meanwhile, the Jungle, Desert, and Palace Precincts are working around the clock to bring these people to justice."  
  
"Who are these Jedi?" asked Dud, his run-in with Fud now forgotten.  
  
Aniron gestured for Luke and Lee to step forwards. "I am Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight and apprentice of Yoda," Luke announced in his quiet and calm demeanor. "This is my son and apprentice, Lee."  
  
Lee nodded towards the group and instinctively touched his lightsaber, just to make sure it was really there and that he really was an apprentice. His own personal insecurity.  
  
Murmurs rippled through the group at the mention of the honored men, until Aniron broke the talk.  
  
"Come now," he said. Giving a curt nod to Benji, Hemin and Boles, they started off to walk the course. ***  
  
Benji always found it hard to walk this part of the track. The heat radiated up to her from the earthen and stone bridge. The pulsing lava flowed, a part of the earth and the volcano from whence it came. The air shivered to Benji, filled with tenseness, a strange excitement, and death. It was her least favorite course on all of Baroonda. The humidity pressed down on her, wanting to melt her through the floor and push her into the Underworld.  
  
"I remember when Neva Kee and 'Bullseye' Navoir were neck and neck right here," Lee scuffed his boot on the stone as the two walked behind the IPRC, "and the committee debated for a whole week on who won the race-!"  
  
"Will you shut up a moment?" Benji hissed. She rubbed her temples for five seconds, pushed her red coiling hair out of her eyes and sighed deeply, feeling the familiar throb she felt every year since she had been fifteen and began reviewing the pod racing circuits.  
  
"What's wrong?" Lee asked.  
  
Benji sighed again. She wasn't ready to think or feel anything in this place, this accursed place where her life had been ripped out of her hands. But the memories came unbidden. Visions of charred metal and the stench of death, of flesh made up of cells no longer living, of lava closing over, greedily sucking all that existed there and turning it into a melted mixture of metal and flesh.  
  
"My mother died here," said Benji abruptly.  
  
Lee looked taken aback. "Why was she on the course? I mean, she wasn't in the police force, was she?"  
  
"What makes you think she was walking the course?" said Benji, annunciating the word 'walking'.  
  
"Well, I."  
  
"Well, 'I' thought wrong. My mother was a racer. Not only a racer, a Rodian mercenary from Coruscant." Benji shuddered, remembering the feel of her mother's skin, the rough, only slightly papery feeling. her hair, cropped short, bluer than the Baroondan sky on a clear summer's day.  
  
"A racer? But she was a woman!" Lee exclaimed.  
  
Benji pivoted around on one foot. "Yes, she was a woman. Yes, she was a racer," Benji spat at him. "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking what everyone in this Precinct and everywhere else has thought at least five times in their entire lives. A woman! What kind of family is that? A pod racer giving birth to the chief of police. But what's more? They're both WOMEN!"  
  
Benji's violet eyes shot livid sparks at Lee. The lava beneath the bridge began to crawl, as if it was sensing the anger of their daughter, or the anger of the daughter of the racer that it had swallowed up three years before, or of the taste of another round of flesh from the same source of which it had already tasted.  
  
Everyone in the committee had already walked far ahead of the two by this time, but Benji didn't care. Lee shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, trying to think of something to say. "Well," he said hesitantly a moment later, "my mother was. well, odd, also."  
  
Benji crossed her arms over her chest and continued to glare at him. "How so?" she said, in a tone that let him know that she didn't really care or that she didn't really want to know the answer.  
  
"She was a fighter pilot."  
  
Benji's eyebrows rose ever so slightly. Lee took this as a good sign and continued.  
  
"She was in the task force that went to destroy the Death Star the first time. She met my father in the hangar afterwards, with my aunt and uncle. She. she's dead too. In the last battle against the Death Star. She died there. My father and her. they never married. She gave birth to me on the Rebel base on the ice planet. my father never told me its name." Lee blushed and looked away, at his feet.  
  
Benji relaxed a little, though not much. "Come on," she said shortly, but a little gently. "We'll have to run before Aniron catches us both gone and we turn into bantha fodder."  
  
***  
  
His orders had come suddenly, warming his bones with a fire that no liquid could extinguish. He knew what he had to do. Baroonda. it was too small a target for him. He would begin there, but after the last race, after the Invitational was over. he knew where he had to go.  
  
Tatooine would be warmer than Oovoo IV, for sure. 


	4. Chapter Three

Hlasta! Qyetes hfirmain.. (Listen- it speaks to those who were not born to die)  
  
-Lord of the Rings (the Elvish language)  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
RIPPERS  
  
Chapter Three  
  
  
  
The steam from the lava rose and brushed against them in humid tendrils as they ran to catch up to the committee. It seemed, though, that Benji had already been missed. They could hear Aniron's yells three turns away. Sprinting to catch up, Benji and Lee skidded around the second turn and beheld a sight neither would forget.  
  
A trail of blood lay before them. Not just a trail, thick little pools here and there with drag marks in between. Someone had been cut. Ripped. They had dragged themselves around the track.  
  
Benji withdrew her gun and loosened her emergency dagger in its sheath. This was her Precinct and her responsibility.  
  
"Aniron!" she panted and slapped him on the arm to get his attention. Aniron looked towards her. His eyes were vacant.  
  
"Aniron! Aniron! ANIRON!" Still the usually deep brown eyes were shallow, gray and unconscious.  
  
"Aniron?" Benji asked softly, just before a slight whiz sounded through the air and Aniron landed in one of the pools of blood. Two darts were embedded deep in his back. They were just far out enough for Benji to tell that one was a tranquilizer and one was a poison dart.  
  
"Everybody down!" Boles and Benji yelled in unison. The IPRC looked around in confusion.  
  
"DOWN!" Benji screamed. The committee was on their stomachs momentarily. Dud Bolt squirmed slightly and tried to avoid the pools of blood.  
  
Behind her Benji heard a low whirr that was not one of a gun. She pivoted around and aimed her gun at Lee's head.  
  
"Everybody down means everybody down," Benji whispered dangerously while glaring at him.  
  
"He can help, Mawhonik," Boles said, concentrating on the foliage around the track. Benji heard another whirr and knew that Luke had decided to help, or take over in Benji's words, as well.  
  
Benji closed her eyes and reached out with her mind. She had read a Jedi book once and found this trick useful at times like this. Benji didn't like using it, but this was an emergency.  
  
She sensed someone to her right, the exact opposite of where Boles and Hemin were pointing their guns. Benji could feel Lee tensing up beside her and knew that he had felt it too. At the same moment, both pivoted around from their original positions to the left. Benji aimed her gun and fired, while Lee crouched down in the defensive stance, ready to deflect any darts that came towards either of them.  
  
A low moan of pain sounded from the bushes. Benji paused for just a moment and shot the lock off of Hemin's belt that held his machete in place. She would need something larger than a dagger for this. She wanted to make the ripper squirm the way he had killed his victims.  
  
Hemin looked on in shock as Benji grabbed his machete from the ground and jumped the wall onto the grassy slope. The trees were thick. Benji unsheathed the machete as she sprinted, Lee just in front of her. Blade and saber hacked away the saplings that stood between them and the ripper. The rustling of braches being brushed away in front of them by something lithe and graceful was not heard.  
  
The pair ran for about a mile before finally admitting defeat. Benji collapsed on a log. Whatever the creature was, it was fast. He didn't even leave any tracks.  
  
As Benji collapsed on a log and buried her face in her hands a nagging possibility occurred to her. What if the shooter wasn't the ripper? Just some maniac wandering off the streets, maybe. Either way, she had done the right thing in chasing him.  
  
Lee's eyes were closed. After a moment he sighed. "He's no where near here," he muttered.  
  
"I know that, genius, I tried the Jedi Mind Trick too," she said mockingly. "We better go back now. I have to check out that body."  
  
Ten minutes later Lee and Benji made it back to the track. The crumpled body was still bleeding, even after over an hour. The committee had made a circle around it, unsure of what to do. Benji rolled her eyes at Boles and Hemin. They hadn't even moved.  
  
Benji threw the machete over their heads and into Hemin's hands, for fun and to wake him up. He sputtered for a moment, and then sheathed it.  
  
Neva Kee and Ody Mandrell parted to let Benji through and to let Lee into the circle. The body lay facedown. Benji knelt down beside it and gave it a futile little shake. Nothing happened. Surprising, Benji thought. With a grunt, she turned the body over and stared at its face. Five, ten minutes passed. 'Bullseye' Navoir threw up his hands in frustration. The movement seemed to shake Benji out of her reverie, and she stood.  
  
"I need your machete back, Hemin," she said as she strode towards him. The racers pulled away from her, as if she held some fatal disease.  
  
Machete in hand, Benji knelt beside the body and held the knife above her head. Its point faced the moon, which had since risen when dusk had passed over the white marble peaks of the Jungle City.  
  
"O nimerel y dasani, jilet hadva ninevhe. Jada kilehe gen limerai nie tev danako peba bhevenu yeta rit nihvene." Benji whispered. Her voice began to choke with tears as she muttered the ancient words. "Oh mother of the moon, have pity for this spirit. Let her rise to your endless skies and drift among the stars."  
  
The machete blade flashed in the moonlight and came down upon the upturned face. It traced the profile, but there was no blood left to come seeping out and over the cheeks, as usually would have happened in the Oovin ceremony, painting the cheeks red with life for one last time. The blade kept tracing, the elbows, the knees. When the gruesomely beautiful ceremony was over, Benji stood and placed the machete beside the body.  
  
"Goodbye, Jimena," Benji whispered as the first tears fell upon the body.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
A/N- Cliffhanger! And yes, I KNOW it was short, but I don't have any more ideas left. I'm drained, folks! For now, anyway. -Benji's Creator 


	5. Chapter Four

Makes me that much stronger Makes me run a little bit harder Makes me that much wiser So thanks for making me a fighter Maybe learn a little bit faster Made my skin a little bit thicker Makes me that much smarter So thanks for making me a fighter -Christina Aguilera "Fighter"  
  
I've been waiting for I've been waiting for a savior Someone to hold my hand Make me understand What saved me I've been waiting for I've been waiting for I've been waiting for a sign Something to bring me life Like a ray of light through sunshine Its time to live Its time to breathe It's all so wonderful to me Its time to live Its time to leave on a Destination unknown Destination to nowhere Complication unknown Complication to nowhere -Unnamed "Destination Unknown"  
  
  
  
  
  
RIPPERS  
  
Chapter Four  
  
  
  
The ashes littered the ground. Smoke curled through the air, choking fingers wanting to suffocate Benji and all those around her.  
  
Jimena's profile stared at her from the fire. Cremation was the Jedi way of burial. Lee and Luke had taken care of Jimena's body for Benji, but they hadn't asked her how Jimena had wanted to be buried, or how Jimena's people, the Oovins, buried their folk.  
  
Long brunette hair whispered and writhed in the flames, dancing near her fingers. Benji brushed her own fire engine red hair out of her eyes. She closed her eyes and reached out with her mind, snaring the people around her in her mind's grasp.  
  
Aniron lived still, though barely. He had been lucky. The poison dart had not hit any major veins or arteries, and the fall kinked up some of the blood flow.  
  
Two tears appeared in the corners of Benji's eyes. She brushed them away with her hand, and elbowed Lee by accident.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry!" said Benji, cringing, as Lee's eyes bugged out of his head and his arms coiled around his stomach, where he had been hit. Benji hurriedly knelt to the ground and picked up three leaves. Forming them into a star like shape, she placed them on his clutched hands and muttered softly.  
  
Lee let out a whoosh of air and looked at her oddly. Benji stared back, her brows drawn. "What did you just do?" Lee asked. Benji cocked her head. "Old Baroondian magic. All Warriors are trained in it, in case anything happens that needs to be taken care of." Benji jerked her head towards him. "Lucky I didn't put the leaves on your head, or else you wouldn't have any problems anymore."  
  
Lee chuckled, then returned his gaze to the flames. Once more in a somber mood, Benji frowned and fingered her emergency dagger. She didn't like this place.  
  
It was an old clearing out in the jungle, surrounded by trees. The soft trickle of a stream splashing over rocks was a smooth sound next to the gruesome cackle of firewood and the smell of Jimena. The moon peered out, full, just over the desert cliffs in the East. Stars drifted in between the soft mist. For the jungle, it was quiet. No brightly colored birds swooped across the moon like strange shadows. No monkey climbed nearby. It was silent.  
  
Benji reached out with her mind again. The ripper haunted her day and night. Three days had passed since Jimena's murder and the wild goose chase through the woods. Things hadn't gone too well at all. Benji had brought Boles, Hemin and Luke through the jungle on the track that they had followed the ripper on. There was nothing. No footprint, no broken branch. Not a twig out of place. It was impossible, yet it had happened.  
  
The IPRC had relocated to Coruscant to check out the new tracks there. They were still pondering the decision on the safety of the Baroonda tracks now that 'a ripper' so named by 'Bullseye' was running around Helri, the Jungle City.  
  
Benji sensed nothing near. Tendrils stretched their length out to creep into the cracks and corners of the city, fingers of her mind and power, sensing a lurking presence.  
  
Lee suddenly stiffened beside her. Benji was pulled out of her trance-like state.  
  
"What?" she hissed, annoyed. Lee pointed to Jimena's burning form.  
  
Smoke curled upwards from the body, but something was different. Benji could not place it at first, and then she noticed.  
  
The ancient marks, same as the slashes on the communication device that she had found three days before in the alleyway, were being wrought above Jimena's body in smoke. They hovered there for a moment, then vanished.  
  
The feeling hit Luke and Lee suddenly, almost propelling Lee off his feet. Benji felt it too, but not as keenly. It was the Dark Force. She heard the whirrs of two lightsabers being activated and drew her gun from the holster on her belt.  
  
Luke waited a moment, listening to some stirring of the Force inside him, then deactivated his lightsaber and tucked it back into his belt. "He's not here," Luke spoke. "The ripper laid some kind of spell on the body to make the symbols appear. He is not on Baroonda."  
  
Benji sighed and put her gun back into her belt. It was going to be a long, hard night.  
  
*** The journey to Baroonda from Oovoo IV had been easy. So easy that it was difficult to he who was used to creeping through transports and swiftly cutting down those that were suspicious of him.  
  
After he had killed the girl, he hopped on the Desert Storm and went to Tatooine. The desert air felt good after the winter of Oovoo IV and the perpetual springtime of Baroonda.  
  
Mos Eisley was the heart of Tatooine and the largest city on the planet. Mos Espa was a mere twenty miles away, but famine had struck there, leaving people to migrate to the greater of two cities. It was large, and it was known as the city of the Hutts. Bounty hunters flocked there to snare their prey. Kinto the Hutt had taken power after Jaba's death, and had granted pardon to Princess Leia because she had cleared his way to the throne. Leia and Han lived in Mos Eisley. It was their last refuge from the terror of eighteen years before.  
  
The ripper walked along the streets, fingering his gun and his knife. As he wandered, he remembered the tales he used to hear, of Padmé Amidala's death and Anakin Skywalker's descent to the Dark Side. He had gotten his first ideas from them. Padmé had been murdered in the same way as he committed his crimes.  
  
It was only a mile away where his next targets lived. For this was the one time, the first but not the last time, that he knew who was going to die. They had taken things from him, these next targets, that could not be replaced.  
  
Han would be the first to die. 


	6. Chapter Five

RIPPERS  
  
Chapter Five  
  
  
  
The sheer primitiveness of the murder was. terrifying. The lack of technology besides a simple blade. it was something from the past, and they didn't know how to deal with it.  
  
Tatooine's Secret Police, appointed by the people because the Hutts did not sponsor a protection service, crowded into the doorway of the moisture farm's clay house. Leeza Tona, the chief of the TSP, looked down with awe and fear at the body of the man.  
  
Blood clotted the man's hair, making it look black. Leeza knelt and, on closer inspection, saw that his hair was dark brown. He motioned for two men to come and help him roll over the body. With a little trouble, they managed to get the body turned over. His white shirt was scarlet in the rays of the dying suns. The small, enclosed space smelled of blood.  
  
One of the two men gasped. The other stood rigidly and looked towards the woman huddled in the corner. Silent tears streamed down her face, tinted red with the man's blood from when she had found her husband lying on the floor.  
  
Leeza stood also and removed his hat. Medics scurried forwards around him to take care of the body. His job done for now, Leeza walked outside and looked upon the two suns. His hand shook as he held his leather hat. Religion wasn't important to Leeza, but now he dropped to his knees again, but in a reverend way. "O Aven of the Twin Suns, release the soul of this man to your everlasting sunrays. Let him float forever through the stars of Heaven. This hero was good to us all. Han Solo did not deserve to die this way."  
  
Teemto Jay, the man who had looked towards the princess of Alderaan with such concern, stepped outside. He smiled sadly when he saw his chief's rigid posture.  
  
"Sir," he said tentatively, not wanting to interrupt Leeza's prayer. "We've received some news from Baroonda."  
  
"Baroonda?"  
  
"The jungle planet, sir."  
  
"Ah yes, continue."  
  
"It seems that this is the seventh murder in a string of homicides. Six were committed in. this way," said Teemto, not wanting to describe anything graphic. "It seems that two of the seven murdered were Tatooinian citizens. We have a woman waiting for you on the line, sir. I believe she's the replacement of the chief of police."  
  
"What happened to the chief of police, then?"  
  
"Murdered, sir."  
  
Leeza sighed and held out his hand for the walkie-talkie with a range that could span galaxies. "Tona," he barked, aware that this was a woman he was talking too, after all.  
  
"Mawhonik," the woman shot back. Leeza could practically hear her anger over the device. "I understand that you have a similar homicide to ours on your hands."  
  
"Yes," Leeza said.  
  
"Do you know what to look for?"  
  
"What would I be looking for besides the murderer of Han Solo?" Leeza said icily. The woman did not balk at this famous name.  
  
"The ancient Baroondian symbols for death, pain, and fire. They were found near all the scenes, except for the ones committed in haste."  
  
"How in the name of the Two Suns do I know what the symbols look like?" Leeza asked, though in a slightly gentler tone. This woman seemed to be more intelligent than most.  
  
Mawhonik sighed angrily over the static, as if everyone was supposed to know what the symbols looked like.  
  
"Listen," Leeza said with a feeling that an outburst that he couldn't afford right now was going to happen. "Why don't you fly over here?"  
  
The woman considered it for a moment. "We shall come," she said finally. "But I need the other Chiefs of Precincts to come with me, and our helpers. And the two Jedi."  
  
"Jedi?"  
  
"Yes, these two Jedi trounced in and tried to take over the operation. Luke and Lee Skywalker."  
  
Leeza Tona grinned. "Then we have hope." ***  
  
The mist was falling like a cloud upon Helri. Benji spread her arms wide and lifted her face upwards to receive the cool moisture droplets. The smells of the city, the sweet aroma of the rain, the slightly pungent odor of grass clippings and tiger lilies that grew wild around the city, was all hard to leave behind. Benji's long, iridescent red coils of hair snaked around her shoulders and fell to just above the small of her back. She sighed. Perhaps sun and pure desert sand would have a different smell to her nostrils. Even the Baroondian deserts were surrounded by city and jungle on all sides, just a slight oasis from the vibrant colors of the planet. Benji was reminded of the legends of Naboo, a planet so like her own. It had been destroyed, though, after Padmé Amidala's death. The Death Star had been swift in its vengeance, and Alderaan had not been the first planet it had been tested on, no matter what the records said.  
  
Lee appeared beside her, breaking Benji out of her reverie. "Time to leave," he said softly. Benji craned her head to look up at him. His eyes were deep and brooding, his mind pondering something Benji could not fathom at the moment.  
  
"What is it?" she asked. Lee shook his head in response. "I don't want to go back there," he muttered.  
  
"Tatooine? But it's your home planet! Your grandfather-!"  
  
"I know about my grandfather. I just don't like it. So lifeless. I feel incomplete there, but I also feel this dread, this memory. My father always says I remind him of Anakin." Lee raised his hands to the sky as Benji had been doing minutes before. "On Tatooine, they farm moisture. The farmers live in hovels dug into the dirt to protect themselves from the Two Suns. Day after day they wheel to their zenith and back down across the sky into the night, never changing their impending rhythm. Their children wander across the desert, some never to return. Others, when they are old enough to have a vague understanding of freedom, make their way to Mos Eisley or Mos Espa, only to be sold into the Old Ways and become slaves like my grandfather was. Some lose themselves in the black trading of the Jawas and the Sand People. They end up as bounty hunters or assassins, lurking in the shadows and waiting for their prey." Lee lowered his arms with this final statement.  
  
"I had no idea life there was so rough," Benji confessed. "And I must say, Lee, that's the most I've ever heard out of you at one time since I met you."  
  
Lee smiled, and Benji had that feeling of hormones seeping through his eyes and onto her body. This time, though, it felt less sharp, more of an aroma of feeling. Benji shook her head. No. She would not allow herself into an unprofessional relationship with this apprentice.  
  
Lee cocked his head and looked into her eyes. "Why are you shaking your head?"  
  
So the idiot could see. "What is it of your concern?" Benji shot back. She pivoted on one heel and headed towards the ship that would take them to Coruscant.  
  
"Why are you afraid of me?" Lee called after her, but for once he did not try and catch up with her.  
  
Benji stopped and turned back around. "Afraid? Why in the name of the Jungle City would I be afraid of you?"  
  
Lee strode towards her, his Jedi boots making soft noises on the pavement of the streets. "Because you run away from me every time I try and break through your thick head and unleash something that's hiding in there." He touched his hand lightly to Benji's hair. She rotated her head around to lose his touch. "I thought the Jedi were forbidden to feel love."  
  
"We are not forbidden. Love is the core of the Jedi. But it must be controlled."  
  
"Why must everything be controlled? Anger, your feelings, your passion for the world around you? Why?" Benji crossed her arms over her chest and waited for his answer. She never got one, because Lee suddenly swung his arms around her waist and drew her towards him. In a single moment her vision became fuzzy and she felt slight pressure points sparking all over her face. Lee was kissing her, kissing her forehead, her cheeks, her lips, everywhere that was not covered by clothing. Her hands, her neck, everywhere. Then the pressure landed on her lips, too sudden for her to protest. It was in this moment that Benji Mawhonik knew that, in order to survive, she had to build her walls around her soul, her feelings, and her memories. The pain of her father's betrayal awakened in the deep recesses of her mind. She had told Lee that her mother had died in a pod race, that it was an accident. What would he do if he knew that her mother drove the vehicle into the bubbling mass on purpose, to escape from shattered love and a daughter that could not be controlled?  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
A/N- I hope you're liking this so far. It seems everyone has gone off their Star Wars high from Episode II. This only has one review so far, so hint, hint, mention it to your friends? Please? For Nestrik?  
  
Ok, ok, fine. Not for Nestrik. 


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